‘Sherlock’ season 3 spoilers: Prequel ‘mini-episode’ available Christmas Day

Who is ready to see a little more “Sherlock“? While you may still have to wait more than two weeks in order to watch the series premiere on the BBC, the wait will not be nearly as long for those of you hoping to catch a little “mini-episode” that the network is putting out on its interactive Red Button service and possibly some other outlets in between Christmas and New Year’s Day when the show returns for its first of three episodes.

The title for this little episode is entitled “Many Happy Returns,” and there is no guarantee that either Benedict Cumberbatch or Martin Freeman is going to appear in at at all. As a matter of fact, the synopsis attached to the special teases that there could be a separate character that is the primary focus:

“Sherlock Holmes has been gone for two years. But someone isn’t quite convinced that he’s dead…”

The reason why we feel like Watson is in not the subject of this is merely because early scoop suggests that he has moved on with his life in the years that follow Sherlock’s “death,” and he will be as surprised as anyone to see him turn up again. In turn, Sherlock is going to be surprised to find out that Watson is not the same man that he was many years ago, as he misreads the situation enough to assume that his fellow sleuth was going to be waiting for him to return all of this time.

To say that expectations are high for the new season would be making a very drastic understatement. This is a show that delivered ratings and acclaim for the BBC when it was last on two years ago, and now, both Cumberbatch and Freeman are significantly bigger stars than they were back at that point two years ago. The reason that this has taken so long is in part because the two have had so many different projects on their plate that they wanted to work on.

Also, take a look at one of the first official images from the new season above, and click here if you missed the latest trailer for whatever reason.

Photo: BBC One